Ghost's in 'The Agency' Machine
by TimeLord33
Summary: Darien and Hobbes battle a spy with a unique ability


The Invisible Man  
  
"The Agency Haunting"  
  
By  
  
TimeLord33  
  
In 'Spirits in the Material World', a song by the Police, Sting sings, "there is no political solution to our troubled evolution". Which I guess was their way of raging against a machine that they felt was failing and we were all ghosts in that machine, unable to effect change. While the Police say the answer is something we can't buy, I was about to find out other ghosts have a different opinion.  
  
  
  
Darien Fawkes entered the little grocery around the corner from his apartment.  
  
"Hola, Maria." He said.  
  
The counter girl smiled at him as he entered, he showed her his empty hands then turned his palms away from her, unquicksilvered the rose he had there and presented it to her.  
  
"Gracias, Darien." She responded taking the rose. "One day you will tell me how you do that, no?"  
  
"It's a talent, one of my many." Darien replied looking past her towards the magazine rack. "Is it in yet?"  
  
Maria rolled her eyes. "And here I thought you just came in to see me, I forgot it's Wednesday." She pointed toward the back of her register. "I haven't unbundled them yet, help yourself."  
  
He walked around to where the bundles of newly delivered newspapers were sitting, fished a pocket knife from his pants, and cut open binds holding the 'Chronical' tabloid. He leaned against the candy rack and started to peruse the articles.  
  
"Honestly, Darien, what does an intelligent man like you see in a worthless rag like that?" The counter girl asked.  
  
"I'm just checking to see if they found out about me yet," he looked up and smiled at her "I can turn invisible you know."  
  
"Oh, you." She smiled and swatted him with the rose.  
  
Outside of the store a tan, beat-up old van screeched to a halt. The driver leaned over to the passenger side and rolled down the window.  
  
"Come on partner, the fat man needs us pretty darn pronto." Bobby Hobbes yelled into the store, then added "Buenos Dais, Maria, is he behaving himself?"  
  
"Buenos Dais, Bobby. Darien is too involved in his 'newspaper'" she said sarcastically "to cause me any trouble." Maria answered.  
  
"You let me know if he gives you any problems." Hobbes said as Darien paid for the paper, jogged out front and hopped into the van.  
  
As they drove away Darien asked, "How did you know where to find me?"  
  
"It's Wednesday where else would you be?" Hobbes answered matter of factly.  
  
The Official, Clair and Eberts sat in the Officials office waiting for Hobbes and Fawkes to arrive, when they heard their familiar banter enter the hall outside. Clair smiled and the Official rolled his eyes. They entered arguing about the merits of having a batboy searching the caves of Afghanistan.  
  
"Your late!" Bellowed the Official, stopping their argument.  
  
"Sorry, Chief, we were involved in some…" Bobby paused and Darien picked it up.  
  
"Research."  
  
"Yeah, research, what he said, research." Bobby finished as Fawkes hid the tabloid behind his back. "So what's up boss man?"  
  
The Official started the briefing. "A new spy has been making the rounds around top secret government installation, stealing vital information and selling them to the highest bidder. I have been contacted by several heads of these agencies to apprehend this spy."  
  
"Pardon me for saying so, I mean I'm all for catching the bad guys and all, but isn't this more for the Feds or the CIA." Asked Darien.  
  
"I gotta go with Fawksie on this one, we're a little more 'specialized' than that."  
  
"Specialized, I like that." Said Darien.  
  
"Yeah, I'm thinking of having it put on my business cards." Answered Hobbes.  
  
"Wait a minuet we get business cards…"  
  
"Enough!" The Official yelled, then looked to his right. "Eberts!"  
  
Eberts took the cue and resumed the briefing. "These break ins do have unique characteristics that fall into your," he cleared his throat "specialty. The perpetrator appears to be able to pass through solid objects." That remark got all of their attentions.  
  
Eberts passed out surveillance camera photos marked as classified. "Through reliable eye witness interviews and on premise cameras our 'Ghost' has a device that allows him to walk through walls, floors and even bullets pass through him harmlessly." Looking at the photos the man was in fact ghost like, he didn't seem to be in focus, plus the fact that the picture caught him in mid wall.  
  
"Spooky." Said Darien.  
  
"Impossible." Muttered Claire.  
  
"Says the Keeper of the Invisible Man." Commented Bobby.  
  
"No, I mean in order to pass through a solid object, this device," she pointed to the chest plate on the man in the photo "would have to vibrate his molecules fast enough to shift his matter between the molecules of whatever he's passing through. And that is what's impossible that would kill any living thing."  
  
"Well Doctor the evidence is right in front of you." Said the Official. "The question is can you find a way to counteract the device?"  
  
Clair thought for a few moments then responded. "If it works the way I believe it does all we have to do is surround the room with something that can gauge and vibrate at his frequency. That should stop him from being able to escape."  
  
"Then we can drop in 'botta bing' slap the cuffs on him and all the other departments owe us one." Announced Bobby. "Right, Boss?"  
  
The Official ignored Hobbes and said, "Excellent, Doctor how soon can you have such a device ready?"  
  
Claire considered the mechanics of the device, "A day, two tops." She answered.  
  
"Get on it." The Official said, and the Keeper got up and left for her lab.  
  
"Hey, Boss?" Asked Darien. "What's this about business cards, I never…"  
  
The Official exploded, "Get out of my office!" The two agents wisely did so.  
  
A day and a half passed and Claire developed a type of blanket, filled with copper and connected to a lightweight frequency generator, it could analyze and match any vibration. Plus it could be easily hung on walls or laid on floors to capture their 'Ghost".  
  
The Official contacted several sources and let word leak that The Agency had the mother load of all secrets just lying around for the taking, which of course wasn't exactly untrue. He was sure it would reach the spy in question and he would soon come knocking on their door, or walking through their wall, as the case might be.  
  
As Bobby and Darien placed Claire's anti-Ghost blanket, as Bobby called it, around the file room they came up with what seemed like a sound plan. Hobbes would be disguised as a derelict and wander around the building, especially the alleyways, waiting for their apparition to make his move. When the 'Ghost' did manifest he would alert Fawkes who would be in the file room, he would Quicksilver and wait for the spy to enter the room. Once inside Darien would activate the anti-Ghost blanket, wait for their target to solidify so he could steal the file, and apprehend him. Pleased with the work they had done they left to get some rest before nightfall when the 'Ghost' would most likely make his move.  
  
"Fawkes, have you ever eaten at the restaurant behind the office?" Hobbes asked as he rummaged through a dumpster behind The Agency's headquarters. "Because I just found half a bacon cheeseburger that's terrific."  
  
Claire and Darien grimaced from the file room. "Would you mind keeping your dining habits to yourself, partner." Answered Darien into the other end of the com line.  
  
"Hey, it's not like there were bugs crawlin' on it or anything. It looked clean and…" Hobbes stopped mid sentence, " Hold up, I think we got a live one." Bobby leaned further back into the dumpster and watched as a man in an overcoat entered the alley. He looked around and not seeing anyone of significance he removed his overcoat to reveal a complicated chest piece Hobbes recognized from the surveillance photos.  
  
"This is our guy." Whispered Bobby. "South-East side of the building." The man touched a switch on his chest and seemed to go out of focus, and then he walked through the wall in front of him.  
  
"He's in." Relayed Bobby. "I'm on my way up."  
  
"No, Hobbes," said the Official over the com, "Fawkes can handle it in here you stay outside in case he gets out again."  
  
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Chief." Darien muttered.  
  
Claire pointed to the device attached to the anti-Ghost blanket. "Wait till he's in the room then switch it on, got it?"  
  
"Got it." Answered Fawkes and the Keeper left quickly to await the outcome in her lab. Darien hopped up onto the nearest file cabinet, accessed the bio-synthetic gland implanted in the back of his head and let Quicksilver flood his system and cover his body, rendering him invisible, and waited.  
  
The 'Ghost' startled Darien by coming up through the floor, as soon as his whole body emerged from the lower level Darien leaned over and quietly flipped the switch to activate the anti-Ghost blanket surrounding the room. Fawkes watched through his higher spectrum of vision as the 'Ghost' circled the room looking for the most likely cabinet. He stopped near where Darien was sitting and adjusted controls on his chest plate, he came back into focus, and in his solidified form he was able to open the file cabinet and start going through the files. Fawkes disconnected his connection to the Quicksilver and it flaked off his body.  
  
"Now that," he said perched atop the adjacent cabinet "was damned impressive, and I'm not easily impressed."  
  
Then he quickly leapt from his spot and tried to tackle the 'Ghost' before he became intangible again. The spy was quicker; he used Darien's momentum against him and flipped him, as he sailed toward the far wall he muttered "Aw, crap." Then hit the wall and slumped down it, stunned.  
  
The attacker then activated the device and attempted to leave the room. He approached the wall and found he was unable to pass through it. He moved over to Darien's limp form and knelt down, placing his hand and upper arm through Fawkes' chest.  
  
"Since I'm sure your monitoring this room I'll give you a chance to save your friend here." The 'Ghost' said into the air. "If you are smart enough to contain me I'm also sure your smart enough to know what will happen if I solidify myself while I'm passed through his chest. So, you have 30 seconds to turn off the device surrounding this room or your colleague here is dead."  
  
Listening from the lab Claire quickly made her way to the file room, slowly opened the door and carefully moved toward the controls, never taking her eyes from the blurry form of the 'Ghost'.  
  
When she switched it off the spy slowly sank through the floor saying, "Thank you." Claire moved to Darien, he was already coming around.  
  
"Where is he?"  
  
"He's passed through the floor, I'm afraid we lost him."  
  
Darien thought for a moment, and then said "Not yet." He got up and ran to the wall pulling down the section of anti-Ghost blanket with the generator on it, then darted for the exit.  
  
"Hobbes, he's on the move. Keep and eye out and let me know where he comes out."  
  
Bobby answered over the com, "Got it." And began moving quickly around the perimeter of the building. He almost ran right through the 'Ghost' near the rear entrance.  
  
"He's right outside the backdoor, partner."  
  
"I'm there in 30." Responded Fawkes and went Quicksilver as he approached the alley door.  
  
As a stall tactic Bobby was engaging the spy in the fine art of filibustering.  
  
"You know you may think you're a world class spy but I can see right through you pal."  
  
"Very drool." Commented the 'Ghost'. "While I'd love to stay and exchange verbal jabs with you I really must be off." The backdoor of the 'Agency' opened seemingly by itself. The spy looked then discounted it.  
  
"Hey Pally?" Called Hobbes. "How about letting me take a shot at you?"  
  
"You can't be that dim." Answered the spy, "You must know it fruitless."  
  
"What can it hurt?" Countered Hobbes.  
  
The 'Ghost' opened his arms and bowed, "By all means take your 'shot'."  
  
At that moment Fawkes activated the Quicksilvered section of the anti-Ghost device and threw it over the spy.  
  
"Now Hobbes!" Shouted the Invisible Man, and Hobbes let loose with a round house that floored the startled 'Ghost'.  
  
"Hey, Chief?" Asked Bobby the next day in the Officials office. "Can I get a hold of that Ghost thingy now that he's all wrapped up in custody? I mean an Invisible Man and a Ghost on the payroll can't be a bad thing"  
  
"Hobbes, your opinion of yourself is already passing tolerance levels, I don't thing we could handle you with some kind of 'power'." Answered the Official. "And at any rate the device is useless to us at this point. Isn't that correct Doctor?"  
  
"I'm afraid so." Said Claire. "In order to have his body survive the intense vibration caused by the machine he, over the course of years, injected himself with some sort of serum to alter his chemical makeup. I have not yet been able to isolate the serum so I cannot duplicate it. Nor am I sure I would want to, after a brief examination of our 'Ghost' he appears to be mentally unhinged. Now I can't point to the chemical change in his system as the cause yet, however it does seem likely."  
  
"Well, Bobby is already 'unhinged' enough for my tastes, I vote we don't add to it." Commented Darien.  
  
All in the room nodded in agreement.  
  
Hobbes looked around and started to object, "I'll have you know that I have personally on more than one occasion…"  
  
"Bobby all I was saying is that I like you just the way you are." Interrupted Darien.  
  
"Oh," paused Bobby, "well if that's all. Ok then."  
  
Claire stifled a giggle, Eberts cleared his throat and Darien smiled.  
  
And the Official said, "Get the hell out of my office."  
  
  
  
So Sting may have been right in certain aspects of the song, but as our Ghost found out he was jailed with more than words. Maybe faith in constitution can halt a bloody revolution, me, I'm just hoping the headline in the next 'Chronical' doesn't read 'Invisible Man: 1, Ghost: 0'  
  
  
  
1 THE END 


End file.
